The cast of COLOSSUS & THE AMAZON QUEEN (1960)
From left to right: Rod Taylor, Daniela Rocca, Ed Fury, Gianna Maria Canale and Dorian Gray. Good cast in this amiable and sexy 'Battle of the sexes' comedy. Taylor did this movie when his career was rising, which was an odd thing to do for any Hollywood actor back then. He said that he did this movie because hewas dating Anita Ekberg at the time, who had been working in Italy for some time (Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA, and other titles). I like this goofy comedy. It gets a bad rep. Remarkably enough, this is a 'Twin Production' with the super serious SIEGE OF SYRACUSE, directed by Pietro Francisci.
Comedy generally does not work well in the Peplum genre. However, COLOSSUS AND THE AMAZON QUEEN shows that a first rate comedy is indeed possible in an Ancient World setting.
ReplyDeleteTWO NIGHTS WITH CLEOPATRA and NERO'S WEEKEND are adequate - but not great - Peplum comedies. MY SON, THE HERO is an example of a really poor Peplum comedy.
The humorous sidekick is generally a mistake in mainstream Peplums, but it very seldom spoils entire films.
When comedy is unsuccessful in Peplums it's mainly down to grating, badly written "comedy" characters, in my opinion. The comedy in "Colossus" works fine, and the cast is great.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, did these amazon costumes pop up in another movie, or am I just imagening that?